Jamaica

I came across the website for the documentary Taboo…Yardies by Jamaican American filmmaker and former model Selena Blake. According to the site:

The concept of the documentary Taboo…Yardies is to explore the perception of Jamaica as an Island that is saturated with homophobia by providing Jamaicans who are pro, con and everywhere in between this highly controversial issue an opportunity to share their own realities. Additionally, the film gives a voice to those Jamaicans who dare to speak up and out about the intolerance and violence towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, particularly as it pertains to an individual’s human rights. We hope to give viewers an opportunity to decide for themselves whether to view Jamaica as a homophobic culture is perception or reality. More importantly, we hope Taboo…Yardies becomes a vehicle that spurs an open an honest conversation that ultimately promotes respect and tolerance for all people regardless of sexual orientation. This documentary is unashamedly in support of human rights and against violence being advocated and/or perpetrated against LGBT Jamaicans.

The Trailer for the film can be viewed here. The site also includes a blog with posts related to LGBT issues in Jamaica. I believe that Blake is still fundraising in order to release the film.

Kenya

24 Nairobi is a funky multimedia project that includes original photography and writing exploring the life of Nairobi. It includes a piece by Caine Prize Award-winning Kenyan writer Yvonne Owuor. According to the site:

The 24 Nairobi project is intended as a showcase of a modern African city through the eyes of its own photographers. A lot of times cities in Africa are viewed through the narrow lenses and stories of missionaries, career war photographers and aid workers.

24 Nairobi brings together local, regional and international creative professionals to evolve powerful and realistic images and narratives that would reflect the working-life diversity, cultures, energy and dimensions of cities in Africa.

This is an alternative, innovative, realistic and professional African perspective. All the photographers reside in Nairobi and grew up or now call Nairobi “home”. This aesthetic has now been captured.

Tanzania

Avaaz.org is a web movement that tries to raise awareness about a variety of social justice issues and runs online campaigns related to these issues. Avaaz.org has taken on the issue of African land-grabbing by running an online campaign to raise awareness about the possible displacement of Maasai living in the Serengeti so that their land can become a big-game hunting resort. They hope to get a million signature on a petition addressed to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in order to prevent this sell-off. The petition reads:

As citizens from around the world, we call on you to oppose any attempt to evict Maasai from their traditional land or require them to relocate to make way for foreign hunters. We are counting on you to be a champion for your people and stop any attempt to change their land rights against their will.

Unfortunately, the Avaaz.org site does not provide many details about what exactly this land grab would involve; it doesn’t even mention what corporation is looking to purchase the land. Luckily, I was able to find more information elsewhere. According to the site CorpWatch, the company is the United Arab Emirates-based Ortello Business Corporation which was also involved in the displacement of Maasai from their land in 2009. The Tanzanian government denies that there is a plan to evict the Maasai, according to a recent article in The Guardian. In a 2009 Guardian article by Alex Renton, a safari camp run by Ortello Business Corporation is described as follows:

This is the field headquarters of Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), a safari company that does not advertise in brochures or on a website. Set up in 1993 by a UAE defence minister close to the Dubai royal family, it exists so that Gulf sheikhs and millionaires can play in the north Tanzanian wilderness, over an area, Loliondo, that is larger than Hampshire.

Renton also discusses the Tanzanian government’s “development strategy” which is welcoming such camps.

This sweep of low hills and savannah is just one of many tracts of land that the dollar-hungry Tanzanian government has pawned to foreign investors. The country’s “development strategy” says there must be a million tourists by 2010 – and it seems that officials will do anything necessary to make that happen. One quarter of the country has been earmarked for “conservation”. Generally this means development for safari tourism, with the people who live on the land in question often forcibly excluded by the government.